Another underestimate of urban poverty

David Satterthwaite – Yet another global study has understated the scale and depth of urban poverty, by failing to appreciate the differences between rural and urban contexts. The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2014 (MPI), launched on 16 June, says 85 per cent of people suffering from ‘multidimensional poverty’ in low- and middle-income nations live in rural areas. But it reaches this conclusion by failing to measure real deprivation in living conditions for urban populations. The key problem is that the study uses the same set of indicators in rural and urban areas. This is absurd…